25 books that every entrepreneur should read

Mark Cuban. Michael Buckner/Getty You are what you read, and if your goal is to build a massively successful company where you call the shots, you might want to start with the following books.

We spoke with wildly successful entrepreneurs and VCs like Mark Cuban and Peter Thiel and pored over years of interviews with star founders to find the books that every aspiring entrepreneur should read.

"The Effective Executive" by Peter Drucker

This is one of the three books that Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos had his senior managers read for a series of all-day book clubs. Drucker helped popularize now commonplace ideas about management. For example, managers and employees should work toward a common set of goals.

"The Effective Executive" explores the time-management and decision-making habits that best equip an executive to be productive and valuable in an organization.

Disclosure: Jeff Bezos is an investor in Business Insider through his personal investment company Bezos Expeditions.

"The Innovator's Dilemma" by Clayton Christensen

Bezos also had his executives read "The Innovator's Dilemma," one of the all-time most influential business books and a top pick of several other founders and VCs, whose reviews are below.

Steve Blank, a former serial entrepreneur who now teaches at UC Berkeley and other schools, says of the book:

Why do large companies seem and act like dinosaurs? Christensen finally was able to diagnose why and propose solutions. Entrepreneurs should read these books as "how to books" to beat large companies in their own markets.

Chris Dixon, an investor at Andreessen Horowitz and a former cofounder and CEO of Hunch, notes:

"The Innovator's Dilemma" popularized the (often misused) phrase "disruptive technology," but there's a lot more than that one big idea. Great insights into the "dynamics" (changes over time) of markets.

"Business Adventures" by John Brooks

"Business Adventures" is as much about the strengths and weaknesses of leaders in challenging circumstances as it is about the particulars of one business or another. In that sense, it is still relevant not despite its age but because of it.

"Conscious Capitalism" by John Mackey and Raj Sisodia

Kip Tindell, cofounder and CEO of The Container Store, tells Business Insider that this is a must-read for entrepreneurs and business leaders.

Tindell is close friends with John Mackey, cofounder and co-CEO of Whole Foods Market, and says that they both believe in Conscious Capitalism, "that a win-win is what's most profitable, and that no one has to lose. Business schools have discovered it, studied it, and found that companies that practice it are more successful."

"Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World" by René Girard

Stanford University Press

Billionaire Peter Thiel, cofounder of PayPal and the first outside investor in Facebook, loves the work of French philosopher René Girard.

Thiel first read "Things Hidden" when he was an undergraduate at Stanford University, he tells Business Insider. While he calls it "an intimidating book," it deeply affected the way he views the world and business.

(1) Competitors tend to become obsessed with their rivals at the expense of their substantive goals, and because of that (2) the intensity of competition doesn't tell you anything about underlying value. People will compete fiercely for things that don't matter, and once they're fighting they'll fight harder and harder.

"Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!" by Richard P. Feynman

Amazon

Google cofounder Sergey Brin told the Academy of Achievement that this autobiography of Richard Feynman inspired him to dedicate his career to blending technology and creativity. Feynman (1918-88) won the 1965 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work in quantum electrodynamics.

Brin said of Feynman:

Aside from making really big contributions in his own field, he was pretty broad-minded. I remember he had an excerpt where he was explaining how he really wanted to be a Leonardo [da Vinci], an artist and a scientist. I found that pretty inspiring. I think that leads to having a fulfilling life.

"Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" by Robert Pirsig

Brad Feld, cofounder and managing director of the Foundry Group, a venture-capital firm focused on investing in early-stage tech companies, recommends this classic book about a father-son trip across the US.

"Anyone who is creating anything should read this book, slowly, and savor it," Feld says.

"Meditations" is a compilation of personal writings from the chaotic last decade of the ancient Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius' life. It is his interpretation of Stoic philosophy, focusing on accepting things out of your control and maintaining mastery over your emotions.

"Zero to One" by Peter Thiel

Amazon

John Sculley, the former president of Pepsi and ex-CEO of Apple, tells Business Insider that his top book recommendation for tech entrepreneurs is "Zero to One."

Sculley, currently invested in a number of tech startups and who sits on the board of 15 different companies, says this 2014 bestseller by PayPal cofounder Peter Thiel is important for two reasons: It focuses on how you can harness technology to build a business of the future, and it enforces the importance of knowing what you're doing before you dive into a startup.

Of course, Sculley says, aspiring entrepreneurs should also read his new book "Moonshot!" because it focuses more on the consumer, while Thiel's book focuses more on technology.

Sacca considers "How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia" by Mohsin Hamid required reading for entrepreneurs. It addresses the reader as "you" and is about growing up in a Southeast Asian slum, escaping to develop a business that brings you to an unnamed city in "rising Asia," and becoming a wealthy entrepreneur.

"You close that book and you feel like you've walked through 15 or 20 different lives in another world," Sacca says.